FML General Thread [6]

[Chuckman]

The effort you put into a course is not for a grade. The grade is an indicator of how well you've performed and an assessment of your understanding as demonstrated, nothing more and no less. The fact that grades are used as an arbiter of who can continue studying and the general dickishness of academia makes them a competition, but that's not what they're supposed to be.

Students no longer want an objective assessment of their progress, they want to compete to have the "best" grade. Sadly, the days of the Gentleman's C are long passed. Professors and administrators have only encouraged this rather than work to curb it, which is a great shame.

If you know you're fighting hard, you should be satisfied with that. As someone who picked a course of study that was easy for me and breezed through it, I can tell you that genuine struggle is more rewarding.

[NemZ]

Grade inflation is certainly a thing, but if a person could get an A in a class based on doing well on just one assignment/test then one of two things are happening here:

1) the instructors don't know shit about setting up a proper syllabus with reasonably weighted items
2) the A is due to something extracurricular...a bribe, blackmail, etc.

[Chuckman]

It's most likely 1. I don't know about you, but I have more than one class where my final grade was by and large determined by the final exam.

My favorite grading system was the one my microecon professor used. There were two tests, and a "homework" assignment that consisted of 100 bizarre questions, like trivia about the Hitchhiker's Guide and economics factoids. I actually got a 40 on the homework assignment, because it counted for 10% of the grade, and I earned perfect scores on the exams. I answered exactly the number of questions I'd need to get an A.

The professor bumped me up to a 100 on the course, because I was the only person who saw the point of the exercise.

On the other hand, I had to take a class in media aesthetics as a prerequisite to a documentary course that was required for my major.

The grade was based on two exams, an equally weighted midterm and final and a paper that counted for twenty percent. Both tests were vocabulary tests- the professor showed clips and we had to use terms from the textbook. The catch was the terms had to be in the order in which they were covered in the book. Now, I used all of the terms perfectly, but I screwed up the order, so I flunked the first test.

These were really basic terms, stuff about lightning and angles that could be drawn from basically any film, so the test was, in effect, a test of whether one could remember the order in which the book covered them.

For the final, I memorized the textbook.

The "paper" was actually the same thing: Pick a film and describe it using the vocabulary terms, in the correct order, one paragraph per term. I felt dirty writing it.

I got a B.

[Mr. Tines]

2) the A is due to something extracurricular...a bribe, blackmail, etc.

A 100% score in anything but maths (or possibly a mathematical physics or physical chemistry paper) does strike me as suspect.

[Ornette]

Grade inflation is certainly a thing, but if a person could get an A in a class based on doing well on just one assignment/test then one of two things are happening here:

1) the instructors don't know shit about setting up a proper syllabus with reasonably weighted items
2) the A is due to something extracurricular...a bribe, blackmail, etc.

I had a lot of courses where the class was based on a curve and there was only 1-3 assignments. They only gave out a pre-determined number of A's, B's, C's and D's. F's were reserved for those who did even worse than landing in the last slot for a D grade. So all you needed to do was do a little better than the 70% of the rest of the student to land in one of the final slots for an A. At the same time, you could get totally screwed, nearly ace everything, and still wind up with a D.

[Rosenakahara]

these posts exist:

SPOILER: Show

i hate everything about anime :)

^ then why are you here?

also that's impossible as anime has so many different genres you have to find at least a few you like :P(me)

^ answering the thread question :)

also that's like saying i should dig into trash to find one good thing. No thanks, i dislike it completely :)

It must suck to be so closed minded, calling all anime trash is like looking at a piece of art, not liking it and then declaring that all art is trash just because you didn't like that particular piece(me)

i dislike general anime visuals style so much that to me it's basically all the same trash.. cause of friends' strong advices i took time and over the visual pain i got to the actual story a few times and found the story\script etc. also completely awful to my taste.. and besides mainstream like naruto\avatar sh*t it was like 3 or 4 major series that are also listed in this thread, disliked them all, still can't imagine why would someone except asian kids watch that but w\e to each their own as @Cramit845 said.

Yes because Ghost in the shell and naruto both share the same visual style, and of course can forget how similar evangelion looks to knights of sidonia, and they all have the same plot because different stories/directors and writers? the fuck is that?(me)

someone post a screenshot\video of what you define great\best visuals in anime
correct me if i get it wrong but anime visuals are all basically this asian colorful edged stuff, characters with small mouthes\big eyes etc. and if i dislike these treats is there any way i could like any anime? lol

i then proceed to link Asuka vs the mp evas and some princess mononoke footage as well of train scene from spirited away which the guy then says makes him want to rip his eyes out and is the worst thing he has ever seen........i dont even.....

[Mr. Tines]

these posts exist:

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

[Chuckman]

I had a lot of courses where the class was based on a curve and there was only 1-3 assignments. They only gave out a pre-determined number of A's, B's, C's and D's. F's were reserved for those who did even worse than landing in the last slot for a D grade. So all you needed to do was do a little better than the 70% of the rest of the student to land in one of the final slots for an A. At the same time, you could get totally screwed, nearly ace everything, and still wind up with a D.

I've always thought curves like this lead to professors losing all concern for whether the students are mastering the material. They'll get their grade distribution, whereas if everyone flunked they might have problems.

[Rosenakahara]

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

yeah i know he is either a troll or the most closed minded person on the planet but i couldn't help it, you can insult my fav anime all you want but insult anime as a medium? im not standing for that :P

[Ornette]

I've always thought curves like this lead to professors losing all concern for whether the students are mastering the material. They'll get their grade distribution, whereas if everyone flunked they might have problems.

These are 4th year courses that's a culmination after 3 years of systematically weeding out the lazy or incompetent. You wouldn't be a senior in the CMU engineering department if you couldn't learn the material in your sleep. The point of it all is to be better than your peers, in all aspects of the assignment; creativity, ingenuity, ability to manage and organize the work, the ability to communicate and put together presentations, the ability to take harsh criticism from the board of directors, and not just simply accomplishing what the assignment tells you to do. The professor could still give everyone an F. There's no pre-determined number of F's a class can get, while there are a max amount for the other grades.

[Shinoyami65]

A 100% score in anything but maths (or possibly a mathematical physics or physical chemistry paper) does strike me as suspect.

I find it very suspicious, but the test is supposedly graded in the UK by Edexcel rather than in-house by the school which should reduce the risk of corruptibility.

Frankly if it wasn't a case of corruption I'd call it a bullshit real-life miracle. The coursework is 40% of the grade; the final exam is 60%. As the guy got <50% to get a D on his coursework, getting one point less than a 100% for the final exam was literally the difference between an A at 80% (half of 40% is 20%, 20+60=80%) and a B or worse at 70%.

I find it even more implausible that someone could manage to get a 100% without memorizing the texts for the exam, preparing quotations, having a damn good idea of the structure, language and imagery devices used in the text, and I had seen no evidence that this guy was an expert in any of these areas. It would have been perfectly plausible from someone who I know is talented and/or puts effort into their work, but this whole set-up just grinds me up the wrong way, it's just so bad-movie-ish.

...At this point I should probably focus more on improving myself for next year, but I don't think I could stand it if I put in even more effort but still got knocked to the curb as some other implausible person lands another 100%.

[NemZ]

80% is an A? 50% is a D?



That's a C and an F in my worldview. I'm calling shenanigans on the whole system.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Are we really gonna get upset about what kind of letter a percentage gets when it's about the percentages, it's not like they don't know that all the kids with As have performed the same?

[Shinoyami65]

^Come to think of it, 50% ought to be a C. Perhaps a 5% shifted in the grade boundaries somewhere. Perhaps there really is money changing hands. I have heard that this particular exam board is less than ideal, but better than some of the others out there.

I guess I'll just have to suck in my pride and hope that working harder actually works this time.

[NemZ]

Meh. The grading scale I was used to in school (lowest % needed) =

A: 92
B: 83
C: 74
D: 65

it's not like they don't know that all the kids with As have performed the same?

You do know that the letter grade is ultimately all that gets reported in many systems, right?

[Squigsquasher]

So I drew my sword from her sheath to make sure she's not rusting (sword cleaning kit should arrive soon hopefully) and somehow nicked my bedroom door with her. Even though she just lightly caught the edge of the door with her very end, she's left a rather noticeable notch. And that was by accident. I shudder to think what she could do to someone if she was used in anger.

So on the one hand an FML (I'm going to have some explaining to do), on the other hand an RML (she's certified lethal).

Well, when the zombie apocalypse rolls round, at least I'm well prepared.

[pwhodges]

Are we really gonna get upset about what kind of letter a percentage gets when it's about the percentages,

Are we really gonna get upset about what kind of percentage a letter represents when it's about the letters?

In my schooling 70% was an A in some subjects. No, it wasn't easier to get them - it's just that the exams were harder!

[KnightmareX13]

Grandfather past away

[Sorrow]

I'm sorry to hear. May I ask how old he was?

[KnightmareX13]

86 years old